Tracking Canada’s Adoption of Electric Vehicles

With the rising concern of climate change and prices of natural resources such as gas and oil ballooning, the electric vehicle market is on the rise. These upcoming charts will show us how the EV market has been changing over the years and how the adoption rate differs across the country. This data was collected from the government of Canada called New motor vehicle registrations, quarterly - Dataset.

First, let’s examine the share each fuel type has on the market at the beginning of 2025: This pie chart provides a clear view of how the market is divided among the categories at a national level. Currently, eco-friendly vehicle options are at an adoption rate of about 35% across the country.

What does this vehicle share look like across the country? Here we compare each province’s vehicle share side by side, showing us the magnitude in differences in each fuel type’s adoption. This visualization helps highlight provinces where EV registrations only contribute a small amount to the market, and subsequently suggests that this is just a reflection of the low registrations in the province as a whole.

Next, let’s try to understand how Canada has grown to this point: If we take a look at our graph, one key consistency is the growth in EV registrations after the year 2019. On May 1st, 2019 the iZEV program was introduced by the government of Canada to give citizens a $5000 rebate for any zero emission vehicle purchase. It’s clear the impact incentives can have, and this has helped mitigate the higher barrier of entry EVs pose when trying to purchase a vehicle.

Subsequently, we see the provinces Saskatchewan, PEI, and others unable to scratch 10,000 EV registrations per year. We see highly populated provinces like Ontario and British Columbia having their growth wane. Maybe their vehicle market share has hit a plateau. Let’s take a look: The first sankey plot shows us which fuel categories are most registered in which vehicle types. The second plot shows us the volume of the vehicle types being registered in each province. Understanding the vehicle segments driving EV adoption is critical to see where improvements are needed. These diagrams show us the success of multi-purpose vehicles, particularly in Quebec, where EV adoption now surpasses gasoline options. Conversely, we find that bigger vehicles with more emissions are harder to electrify well because of factors like mileage, horsepower, and torque. This highlights the impact that technological readiness and suitability has on the adoption of EVs.

Finally, let’s look at the growth of EVs over time from a geographical context. This map visualizes the percentage of EV registrations across the provinces and territories, offering a spatial perspective on the regional disparities we have been exploring. Provinces and territories where the EVs are starting to eat up market share are darker on the color gradient. Conversely, the color gradient highlights the area with lower registrations as lighter colors, giving a clear picture of where additional EV infrastructure and incentives might be needed.

Overall we can conclude that while EV registrations are growing nationwide, the pace and nature of their growth vary by region and vehicle type. Factors like charging infrastructure, government incentives, fuel economy, and time in the market all contribute to the challenges of adopting EVs in different regions.